How do you do employee training for people that you’ve never met before?
The answer to that question is worth a million dollars right now. Everyone is looking for the best people, the most productivity, etc… In a world still shaken from the impacts of the lockdown, businesses have to pivot to survive.
Still, the work from home phenomenon is not all that new. Before 2020, 3.4% of the population was working remotely full time, and 43% of jobs offered partial work from home options to help improve work-life balance for their employees.
Why? Because employees value flexibility in their professional lives.
So, even though remote work is a hot button issue, it’s obvious that the market has been moving towards a large remote workforce for a long time. Here are several ways you can adapt.
Tell a Good Story
Who’s the best training manager in your department? Chances are, trainers get great results because they can adapt to the employees they’re training and because they can make a connection.
It’s more important than ever to invest heavily in the story that your company tells about itself. Remote employees need a reason to care about the company employing them. We don’t mean to toot our own horn, but video training is one of the best ways to form an emotional connection between your brand and the people you employ. Forrester’s research has shown that video is 75% more engaging than text-based remote training and emails.
So, how do you connect with your employees working at a distance? Use video to tell a story that your new employees can relate to.
We’ve made a ton of engaging training videos like this educational series for Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
You can also refer to one of our recent blogs, the “10 Commandments of Story” for more tips and tricks of the trade.
Don’t Overwhelm Your Employees With the Length of Your Training
No one wants to sit through an all-day meeting or training. So, here’s a little tip we have for you to help you keep your employees engaged all day.
If you show your employees a movie, have them sit through a series of lectures, etc., then you’re going to lose them. That’s why Zoom lets people Zmute – so you won’t hear them snoring.
Instead, break your employee training into 2-4 minute blocks with training videos or short exercises. Show a 2-4 minute instructional video before a 30-minute long practice session to apply their new knowledge.
Finally, look to ISE’s great tips on training videos. Make sure to limit your key takeaways in each training to three things. If you can reduce the key takeaways in each training session to two, or even to one, then you’ll be in a pretty good spot.
These steps are essential because they help your employees focus and retain information rather than being overwhelmed.
Style Your Employee Training Correctly
Your training video should reflect your culture (or the culture that you want to have). So, choosing the right genre is incredibly important. For example, animation can be fun and whimsical while live-action often takes on a more serious note.
Think about it this way. Your brand training needs to be branded to get the best results.
This philosophy trickles down into non-video-based training as well. PDFs should have a color scheme that matches your company. Your graphics should all follow the same design principles. The tone of your company’s employee resources should be upbeat, serious, or whimsical, depending on your brand.
Want help finding your company’s style? Fill out our creative brief, and we’ll help your company find itself.
The Remote Workforce Is Here to Stay, Can You Adapt in Time?
Whether we like it or not, remote work isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Employees enjoy the benefits too much, and remote offices are much easier on any company’s bottom line.
So, look at your current training material. Does it tell a story, is it broken up into easily digestible chunks, and is it formatted correctly? If it’s not, then you might want to consider adding video, redesigning your training manuals, and changing up your training in general.
Will you adapt? If you want to improve and you’re not sure how, contact us. We can help you add video and a plan into your employee training.
Your story starts here.